


Sleep Over

by Schadenfreudessa



Series: Unmitigated Fluff [2]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Drinking, Kid Fic, M/M, Mild Sexual Content, hot dads
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-19
Updated: 2014-04-19
Packaged: 2018-01-19 23:16:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1487737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Schadenfreudessa/pseuds/Schadenfreudessa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony decides that a sleep-over at Stark Tower is in order so he can meet his daughter's friend, and said friend's obnoxious dad.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sleep Over

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts), [IsahBellah](https://archiveofourown.org/users/IsahBellah/gifts), [Artmetica](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Artmetica/gifts), [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts), [glitter_dresses](https://archiveofourown.org/users/glitter_dresses/gifts).



> So this was a long time coming, but it's been written in between much larger projects. Plus real life stuff too, which bites, but several people who are very awesome asked for a sequel and so I caved, because I'm weak-willed and a sucker for people with nice things to say.
> 
> (Also, forgive my lack of understanding about anything involving Iceland, I do my best to triple-check everything I talk about, but this is the internet).

The phone number burns a hole in Tony’s pocket for the rest of the night, but by the time Ellie is asleep and in bed, he’s made up his mind. He’s going to invite Fenrir and his father over for a playdate on the weekend. He should have at least a prototype up and running by then, which will be enough to entertain the kids, he’s sure. He wants to encourage Ellie’s friendship after all – being the sole child of the internationally known Tony Stark doesn’t make it easy to bond with peers.

But more than that, he sort of sympathizes with Loki a bit. Single parenthood isn’t easy even for Tony, who has a fortune and connections that will provide for Ellie even after he’s dead. She won’t have to worry about college or finding a job – at the very least, there will always be a place for her in Stark Industries. Loki, though, doesn’t have that assurance to give to his son. Nor is it entirely unreasonable that when he feels like his son’s affection is being given to another, that he would lash out, even if it’s not entirely deserved or logical. Irrationality seems to come with having a child.

Tony sort of forgives the outburst, and he wants to make Ellie happy, so inviting Loki and Fenrir over is an obvious solution. As Tony sits down in his workshop, he takes the number out of his pocket, laying it atop the workspace in front of him. He barely hesitates before he waves JARVIS up and has him doing a search on the phone number and this Loki. He might already be planning on inviting the guy over, but that’s not going to stop him from doing a bit of digging first.

What comes up is a collection of files and documents on Loki Ulfson, father of Fenrir Ulfson, and adopted child of the Borson family. Tony frowns slightly when biological parents come up as unknown – though this explains why Loki and Thor look so very different, Loki had to have changed his last name for a reason, maybe a family dispute. More important than that, however, is Fenrir’s mother – she’s unlisted.

That shouldn’t technically be possible – normally, the birth certificate is filled out at a child’s birth, and it’s only the father that might go unnamed. But according to investigative reports – and that’s worrying, that the police were involved – seventeen-year-old Loki showed up at the hospital in his home town of Kópavogur with a newborn infant swaddled in his arms and no mother in sight. Loki had told the investigators that the mother was an old girlfriend who wanted nothing to do with her son, not even her name on his birth certificate.

No evidence to contradict the story was ever uncovered, and testing proved Fenrir to be Loki’s son, so they just left it at that, and suddenly Loki Borson and his son disappear from Iceland altogether, showing up in New York City as the Ulfson family. Despite the young age and lack of connections, Loki managed to land a job as editor to a start-up magazine which had since become popular, allowing the two of them to live a modestly comfortable life. Thor followed him oversees later, maybe seeking to reestablish family ties. Still, Tony can’t help but be impressed with Loki – if someone had handed him a kid as a teenager, he probably would have run away screaming.

It’s all a bit dodgy, though, and really, Tony should throw away Loki’s number right now, but he doesn’t. Yeah, Loki might be a madman who thought it would be a great idea to cut his baby out of some poor girl’s stomach, then left her for dead, but there can’t be much of a chance of that. Someone probably would have noticed by now if Loki was a psychopath. And it’s not as if he’s letting them wander off with Ellie in tow – Loki and Fenrir would be coming to the tower, where JARVIS could monitor them to his mechanical heart’s content.

So he has JARVIS dial up the number, continuing to flick with articles related to Loki as he does, not really finding anything beyond mentions of his promising, if rather moderate, career. Fenrir goes completely unremarked upon, he notices, but doesn’t think any more on it because the line is ringing and then an unpleasantly familiar voice comes on.

“Who is this?” is the sharp greeting, and Tony is unsurprised. Of course Loki would be one of those people who knows every number of the people that they speak with and is inherently suspicious of new ones. Well, when you’ve got a brother like Thor who hands out your number to random people that makes a bit of sense, Tony supposes. But he turns on the charm nonetheless; he’s got an asshole to talk around.

“Why hello there, Loki”, the genius begins, layering his tone with saccharine humor, but he’s cut off with impatience.

“I asked who this is”. Man, Loki sounds practically irate. Tony pays that no mind.

“Tony Stark, Ellie’s dad”, he goes on, and keeps talking even as Loki starts to make a noise. “So I know before I said your kid could come over some time, and I was thinking this weekend. I’m sure you’ve not got plans or anything, and I’ll have things up and running, so you just need to show up with Fenrir at Stark Tower and we’ll have lots of fun”. The line is dead silent for a long moment as Tony’s babbling trails off. He can’t help but to smile, because it’s easy to imagine Loki on the other end looking so greatly offended that he can’t even think up a reply.

Then Loki is growling and Tony chuckles. “If you presume to-“.

“I’m so glad that you agree”, Tony interrupts, allowing himself to smirk. “Ellie is going to be so excited to see you both on Saturday, I’m sure she won’t be able to shut up about it all week”.

Again silence, and Tony knows that Loki’s got it, because he’s sure this guy is clever enough to follow along. It’s actually really simple and terribly devious – maybe just a bit cruel, as well – because if Ellie talks, it’s going to be to Fenrir. And if Loki says no, it’s going to be Fenrir who is most disappointed, and he’ll blame his father for denying him this weekend. A complete dick move on Tony’s part, but if he has to practically bully Loki just to give Fenrir and Ellie their playdate, he will.

He never claimed to be a good person.

“We will be there Saturday afternoon”, Loki finally replies, the answer spat out with venom, but there is resignation echoing through it. Tony can’t help a shark-like grin, one that has brought tears to the eyes of inexperienced businessmen before.

“Oh, I can hardly wait”, Tony returns, not at all perturbed when there is only silence over the line. “And don’t forget to pack a bag”, he continues. “We’ll make a weekend of it”. He gets only the click of the phone going dead, however, as Loki hangs up in what must have been a spectacular fit of anger. But Tony’s amusement over the conversation quickly falls to the wayside as preparations for a space simulator invade his brain, and the project takes over his night.

 

* * *

 

 

Caffeine, science, and Ellie’s enthusiastic participation in Project ‘My Toys are Cooler Than Your Toys’ help the rest of the week disappear faster than cookies in the Stark Tower penthouse. Most of Tony’s time is spent working with the bots to build the physical aspects of the simulator, letting JARVIS put together most of the coding and graphics for the machine. When Ellie isn’t in school, she sits on her own personal lab stool, making suggestions to JARVIS about things to include in the simulation, or what would be expected in their theoretical space mission. They are all things JARVIS has accounted for already, but for an artificial entity, he is surprisingly tactful and more than a bit doting, so he doesn’t make any mention of it to her.

After the heavy lifting part of the build is done, however, Ellie and Tony swap places. Tony runs back through the code, tweaking things and correcting possible bugs before they occur. Ellie rallies the bots – DUM-E, U, and Butterfingers are her little army of chaos – and they begin to paint the simulator. The bots cover the whole thing in a dark, tarnished silver color, and then Ellie directs them to add edgings of red, blue, and black to the frame, leaving the whole thing to look like a boxy spaceship from a cheap sci-fi film. Of course, Ellie absolutely loves it, and she’s smiling brightly as some SI workers move the whole thing from Tony’s private lab to one of the larger experiment bunkers on a lower floor.

The solid, concrete room provides more than enough space for the simulator to move as it needs, and it needs a lot of space. Tony had designed the thing to hold two adults and two children comfortably and safely.

By Saturday morning, all that’s left to do is wire the simulator to JARVIS’s control lines and the Tower’s electrical system. Tony gets right to it after catching a few hours of sleep in his bed, and Ellie – not allowed to help with anything involving live electrical wires – heads out with Pepper to get snacks for the little sleepover. The two of them get back just before Tony finishes, so he comes up to the penthouse to find them already putting away bags of groceries in the kitchen.

There’s popcorn and sodas, the makings of s’mores, and a frozen pizza or two, with even more junk food already put away, and Tony smiles as Ellie and Pepper laugh over a joke he has just missed. Things had been weird between him and Pepper after Ellie first crashed into his life, and for a while he had feared she would leave her job as his PA. But somewhere along the way, Ellie managed to make Pepper fall in love, and had gained an Auntie in the process. Even as CEO of SI now, Pepper still takes the time to spoil her niece, and Tony knows she enjoys the occasional moments of domesticity that affords.

He likes it too, even if the both of them gang up on him all the time in ways that are frankly just terrifying.

Tony bypasses the kitchen, though, leaving them to it while he goes and cleans up. He takes a shower, using the hot water to ease the lingering tension in his muscles from the work, and to clear away the remnants of sleeplessness from his face. He comes out feeling much fresher, and well, he decides to go all out just for the hell of it, taking extra care when shaving and running a comb through his hair. He even pulls on his nicer pair of jeans – the ones without plaster dust permanently set into the fabric.

He looks sharp – good, even – and it’s enough for Pepper to notice. She looks at him suspiciously as he comes out into the living room, but stays quiet. Ellie’s asleep on the couch, Pepper having probably convinced her it would be easier to stay up late for the sleepover if she took a nap first. But the look that Pepper sends to Tony lets him know exactly what she wants, and he slinks into the kitchen with a silent pout, hearing her stand and follow him a moment later.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” she starts immediately, face set in a frown. Tony doesn’t have a chance to do more than shrug before she continues, though, undeterred. “I saw the file you’ve got on this Loki, and I’m not sure it’s a good idea to let him around Ellie, let alone in the Tower. Happy doesn’t like it either, and he was going to insist on staying with you all as a guard, but I talked him down”. Pepper sighs, putting a hand to her hip. “He’s down in the lobby right now, wanting to get a first look at your guests for the night, just in case”.

That makes Tony smirk a little, but he waves away Pepper’s concern. “Look, I’ve already met the guy, okay? So yeah, Loki’s a bit of a weirdo with a family story straight out of a soap opera, but I’m mostly sure he isn’t dangerous, and even if he is, I’ve got JARVIS here to keep an eye out”. When Pepper doesn’t look convinced, he puts on his most earnest face, one that normally works to convince her that he’s taking things seriously and really thinking them through. “Just trust me on this one. You know I would never put Ellie in danger just to satisfy my pride”.

Pepper nods, satisfied and willing to drop the matter. Or, almost drop the matter. “I just worry”, she begins, taking a step closer to Tony and laying her hand on his arm. “Obadiah never seemed dangerous either”. Unable to stop himself, Tony tenses, and Pepper squeezes his arm in a show of comfort.

Obadiah hadn’t ever seemed dangerous, Pepper is right, and Tony knows that. No, Obadiah had been perfectly content to double deal weapons under the table, slowly getting cockier as Tony had turned from his old partying lifestyle to looking after Ellie. It didn’t matter what was distracting Tony, after all, as long as he wasn’t paying much attention to the company or the accounts. But Ellie had provoked a real change in Tony’s attitude – _Why are those people hurting each other, Daddy? Why is our name on their guns?_ – and Obadiah’s cash flow had disappeared along with all SI weapon manufacturing. His response had been to make an attempt on Tony’s life through a contract killer let into his personal lab, and when that didn’t work, he had resorted to kidnapping.

Tony still feels somewhat relieved that Ellie seems to have no memories of those events. She had been very young at the time, and the psychiatrist that had examined her shortly after said that forgetting such traumatic memories was not uncommon. But the incident had made Tony paranoid about his daughter for quite some time, and he was still almost overly cautious. This, though, is something else. This is in a safe, controlled environment, and Loki’s got a kid of his own.

“No, but this is different”, Tony insists, shaking his head, but not pulling away from Pepper’s concern. “I got this one, Pep”. And that’s the end of it. Pepper steps back with a sigh, not saying anything more and eventually leaving, probably to chase Happy out of the lobby and away from terrorized guests. Tony is left to wake up Ellie and force a late lunch into her, the both of them waiting impatiently for Fenrir and his father to just show up. Finally, after an hour of terrible modern cartoons, JARVIS alerts them to the presence of Loki and Fenrir, who have both been directed to the private elevator and are on their way up.

By the time the elevator doors open, Ellie is off the couch and standing right there, grinning in excitement and ready to play the overeager hostess. Tony stays where he is, legs kicked up on the coffee table and well able to see their guests when they walk in. Fenrir comes in first, running right into the center of the room and looking around in awe. He’s babbling about how cool everything is, words blurring together as he just keeps going with a limitless energy. Loki steps in far more sedately, greeting Ellie with a smile as he dips into a low bow. “Hello Miss Elise”. Ellie giggles, holding out her hand and letting Loki kiss it.

“Hello Mr. Ulfson”, she returns, and Loki gives her a bright smile that makes Tony blink with something close to surprise. That’s not a look he’s seen before or expected from Loki, though he’s only known the guy for a week. It actually looks _real_ , sincere even. But the smile is gone in a moment as Loki straightens, and his gaze flickers to Fenrir before falling to Tony.

Fenrir has bounded over to the windows, practically pressed against them to take in the view, and Loki speaks sharply to him, though he doesn’t look away from Tony at all. “Come away from the glass, Fenrir. We wouldn’t want to smudge Mr. Stark’s view”. And Fenrir does step away, looking thoroughly chastised and sending a guilty apology Tony’s way.

“It’s all good, kid”, Tony responds, smiling at the young boy before meeting Loki’s even gaze with a challenging look of his own. “They’re easy enough to clean anyway”.

“I’m sure the staff wouldn’t agree”. Loki steps further in, past Ellie and down the few steps into the circle of the couch. He cocks an eyebrow, as if confident in having put Tony in his place, but Ellie is the one who answers, running up to Loki and laughing.

“We don’t have staff”, she says, naively disproving Loki’s opinions. “The robots and JARVIS clean the windows, mostly, but sometimes Auntie Pepper makes Daddy do it if he’s not being a good listener”. Loki looks positively shell-shocked by that, and Tony can’t help but chuckle, finally standing from the couch. He comes to a stop behind Ellie, placing a hand on her shoulder and grinning sharply at Loki.

“Like I said, easy to clean”.

 

* * *

 

 

The afternoon starts with Ellie’s enthusiastic tour of the personal levels of the Tower. She is happy to take Loki to the guest room where he’ll spend the night, while Fenrir puts his overnight bag in the game room, which already has sleeping bags and pillows laid out on the floor. Ellie also drags them, with Tony tailing, to her room, the kitchen, the library, and even to the next floor down, where there’s a more formal sitting room and a small pool.

But then finally – _finally_ – they make it to the lab floor where the simulator is stashed, and Ellie has pulled out all the dramatic stops. The lab windows are tinted dark, and the door sealed closed. She comes to a stop in front, turning to face Loki and Fenrir both, and Tony gives her a thumbs up from behind them. “This”, she starts, “is the very best part”.

Fenrir’s eyes are big, bouncing in place in that hyperactive way he seems prone to, and maybe even holding his breath. Loki stands watching in silence, possibly a little bit confused, but it is hard to tell from Tony’s place behind him. After an appropriately placed dramatic pause, Ellie continues. “This is the part you’ve been waiting for; this is where the magic happens. Behind this door, there is something absolutely life-changing – a dream brought to life”. A longer dramatic pause this time, and then Ellie steps aside, speaking loudly over the artificial hiss of the door. “This is a Mission to Mars”.

Tony’s impressed and more than a little proud; his baby had put that together all on her own, a grand show just like her dad. And all without the loss of self-confidence, feelings of eternal disappointment, and soul-crushing family issues that came with Tony’s own lessons in showmanship. Tony had learned because he thought it would win his father’s love. Ellie did it because she wanted to, and because Tony would love her no matter what – she didn’t have to earn what was freely given.

But everyone is already moving on and Tony joins, finally stepping into the bunker up to Loki, who is watching their children scamper around the simulator, jumping over bundles of wire and chattering on loudly. Loki himself looks a bit in awe, but it’s of a more silent kind, and certainly unwilling. He probably doesn’t want to admit how cool this all is, maybe to maintain appearances or just be an asshole for a bit longer. Fenrir certainly seems to love it, though, if the way he’s hugging the machine means anything.

Chuckling, Tony starts to say something, but he’s interrupted by Loki – he would protest being spoken over, but Loki seems to be thoroughly distracted, and not just trying to be rude.

“And you made this? Over the past few days?” It’s questioning, and Loki looks very unwillingly impressed – maybe even a bit apologetic or sad? Tony could take his turn brag or boast, but he’s running off the high of Ellie’s excitement, and it dampens his meaner side.

“Yeah”, he answers, shrugging when Loki gives him a bit of a panicked stare. “It was something fun to do, and I never could stand to see Ellie cry”.

“All of this”, Loki says with a helpless gesture towards the simulator, and Tony just nods. He watches Ellie pointing out little details and designs to Fenrir, who looks enraptured, every so often reaching out to hesitantly touch the simulator like it’s going to disappear if he doesn’t. It echoes of Tony’s own childhood, and how he must have looked that one Christmas when human Jarvis had given him a Parachuting Spock doll. It was cheap and more than a little stupid, but Tony had been terrified to open it, and even when it was in his hands, he had treated it like a sacred object. When it had broken – as was inevitable – he had cried so hard, but he wasn’t ever able to fix the dam thing. That didn’t stop him from keeping the toy, though, and out of everything that he had saved from those unhappy years, it held a place of honor in his private storage.

Loki stares at him, and there is something that reads like terror to Tony, but he can’t question it before the other man continues. “What of Fenrir, then? Why invite my son along for this?”

“Why not?” Tony shoots back, but keeping his eyes on the kids. “Why would I leave him out when he was just as screwed over as Ellie was? Even if it is something that seems trivial.” His voice growls a bit with simmering anger – the absolute and childish heartbreak, the _betrayal_ on the both of their faces – but he squashes that down by sheer force of will. “Besides, Fenrir and Ellie are friends, good friends, and I want that for her. I want my daughter to have a person she can trust, a friend she can be close to no matter her status or parentage or background. I want there to be someone in her life that she can grow up with and who can give her something happy to remember”.

“I-“, Loki begins, and Tony can’t help but remember how young Loki is suddenly, not even an adult when he became a father. “I want the same thing for him too”. His voice is pained, almost reverent, but Tony doesn’t point it out. It isn’t hard to believe that Loki might have been the same once, that friends weren’t something he possessed in abundance.

But Ellie’s voice cuts through any reply Tony could hope to come up with, “Dad, come on!” She and Fenrir are already inside, the door lifted up and the two of them strapped into the middle seats. Tony can’t help but to chuckle at their enthusiasm, and climbs up into the simulator. He has to crawl over them both to get to the far seat, but halfway there he flops dramatically across the kids. It startles a shriek out of Ellie, and Fenrir laughs loudly, both of them trying to move Tony’s much larger body with no success.

“Get off, Daddy”, Ellie squeals, Fenrir echoing the sentiment, but Tony only groans dramatically, leaning on them a bit more.

“I can’t move”, he whines. “I’m stuck here forever and ever”. Again, small hands shove at him to no effect.

Fenrir’s voice calls out over Ellie’s giggling and Tony’s moaning. “Papi help! Help us, Papi!”

“Well, how can I resist”, comes the drawl from over Tony’s shoulder, and when he turns his head, he catches the tail-end of a mischievous smirk before two large hands land on his ass and shove hard. The push sends him falling into the far seat, landing on his face and twisted awkwardly in the cramped space. His moans turn real because _ow_ ; it isn’t actually a comfortable place to be.

Fenrir cheers, and Ellie is laughing. Even Loki is laughing, though it’s an evil sound. By the time Tony manages to right himself, Loki’s already seated and buckled, grinning darkly at Tony’s flustered face. Tony doesn’t comment beyond a quick glare sent towards the younger man, instead getting buckled in himself. “JARVIS, kick it”.

With that, the door next to Loki automatically hisses closed, and the overhead lights of the simulator dim. The sitting space is narrow, with instrument panels pushing out so that everyone can do their job in flying the virtual shuttle. In such a tight space, the only light comes from the panels, lighting the faces of the whole group in oranges and yellows. Over the speakers, JARVIS speaks in a soft, calming voice.

“Welcome to Stark Industries Mars Explorer Shuttle. Today you will be enjoying a condensed flight from the launching station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, to a landing location near the Valles Marineres. Your team today includes an engineer, a pilot, a copilot, and a navigator”. As JARVIS read out the positions, each stations lit up. Tony as engineer, Fenrir as pilot, then Ellie as copilot and Loki as navigator. JARVIS continues on, explaining the mechanics of the simulator and the forces they will experience, but Tony is more focused on how intent Fenrir looks next to him.

The boy is staring without wavering at the instruments in front of him, almost managing to achieve the gravitas and authority of an actual pilot in action. His little hands rest completely still on the panel in front of him. It’s a complete change from the hyper, nervous child Tony had first seen at the museum. A loud beep begins the countdown to liftoff, then, and Tony focuses back on his own instruments. Ellie will kill him if he messes up the mission, after all.

Take-off hurts, Tony decides, as the simulator begins to spin them at an angle, pushing the four down into their seats. Fenrir makes a small squeak, but is otherwise stoic in the face of centripetal force. Ellie actually laughs, and Loki doesn’t make a sound, though Tony manages to glance sideways and see that he doesn’t look particularly happy either. Then they breakthrough the atmosphere and suddenly they’re in space.

Everything is quiet, and Tony realizes it’s so strange because of how much noise there had been before. Now, however, there is only the occasional beeping of an instrument requiring input. Tony’s only duty so far is to monitor for any strange readings on oxygen or life-support, which he knows will stay steady on this first flight at least. Loki’s job is similarly easy, at least until they reach the landing stage. The brunt of the responsibilities falls to Ellie and Fenrir, who have started to chat about the numbers on the screen in front of them. Tony’s pretty sure they don’t actually know how a rocket engine works, but they are pouring over its output efficiency like they do.

The landing, when it comes, is rough and more than a little hellish. The whole simulator is shaking, and Loki’s yelling out directions while Fenrir is practically growling in concentration. Ellie is screaming like she’s on a thrill ride, and Tony really has nothing to do but observe the controlled chaos. Then the whole machine vibrates in a way that Tony doesn’t remember programming it do, and everything cuts to black before the overhead lights come on. “Simulation failure – fatal crash”, JARVIS’s voice calls from above, and then the door beside Loki opens slowly.

Fenrir climbs out first, scrambling desperately out, though Tony doesn’t understand why. Loki immediately follows, and so does Ellie, with Tony hanging back for a moment, not sure what’s going on or how to react. He gets it, though, when a teary-eyed Fenrir turns to Ellie, pleading.

“I’m sorry I crashed”, he says, voice rough with tears, and Ellie tries to comfort him to no effect. Loki’s not having much luck either, Fenrir so fearful that he had failed in some way, or even broken something.

Before Tony steps out of the simulator himself, though, he speaks under his breath, just loudly enough for JARVIS’s sensors in the machine to hear him, “Give the kid an out, Jay”.

As Tony finally gets out of the simulator, JARVIS interrupts the scene. “Diagnostics reveal crash to be the result of a failure in the leftmost thruster, and the subsequent failure of the assigned engineer to identify the problem. An immediate loss of control followed, and the crash occurred only several seconds later”.

Fenrir blinks in confusion for a moment, looking first to Ellie, then Tony for some kind of sign that he doesn’t need to feel guilty. Loki provides it instead. “See sæti, you did nothing wrong”, the man kneels, taking Fenrir’s hands in his own and holding them to his chest. “You piloted well, but Mr. Stark wasn’t paying enough attention to his own job”. Fenrir nods, hesitant, and glances towards Tony, who pulls a guilty face and mouths sorry.

In his distraction, he misses the tiny fist that Ellie swings at him, hitting him square in the side. “Ow!” he cries, but Ellie is pinning him with a fierce glare.

“You have to pay attention, Daddy!”

“I was trying”, he tries to reason, but to no avail. Ellie is determined to show him the error of his ways, but it’s probably more to do with the fact that Fenrir had been, and she wants to do something about it.

“We’ll just have to do it again until you get it right”, she determines, and Tony sighs and pouts, but lets her shove him back towards the simulator.

“We can go again?” Fenrir questions, still sounding a little weepy, though his eyes are clear and the tears are wiped away.

“Of course”, Ellie returns, “and Daddy’s going to pay attention now”. Fenrir practically cheers, climbing back into the simulator himself, and as Loki follows, Tony catches him with a strange look on his face, but it’s gone in a second. Afterwards, Tony’s too busy play astronaut to look his way again.

 

* * *

 

 

It’s much later - after hours of spaceflights and pizza and junk food - that Fenrir and Ellie are curled up in their sleeping bags, giving in to exhaustion and falling asleep on the game room floor. Tony heads over to the penthouse bar, deciding he’s going to need a nightcap if he’s going to fall asleep without the sound of the simulator’s different alarms chasing him all the way into dreaming.

He isn’t expecting Loki to join him, thinking that the man would have gone to bed himself. Instead, Loki leans heavily on the bar, watching from the corner of his eyes as Tony grabs a second glass and pours whiskey into that as well. Tony slides the half-filled tumbler towards Loki, and is silent as the man takes a long drink. He doesn’t know what to say now that their only common ground is sleeping in the other room. What can he say when they’re circumstances are so different? Any advice on parenthood would sound condescending and critical; any attempts to ever be friends with the younger man seem to be completely pointless in the face of his aloofness.

Loki doesn’t appear to be suffering from the same problem, however, as he sets his empty glass down and speaks quietly. “You are not so selfish as I have been led to believe, Mr. Stark”. The words are a soft-spoken accusation, as if all the media criticism, bad publicity, and mass opinion of his character were all engineered to disarm Loki now. Tony doesn’t rise to the bait.

“If that’s how people think of me, I’m not inclined to change it”, he responds with a shrug, staring out the penthouse windows to the night sky above New York. “People are less likely to prey upon someone’s kindness if they have no kindness to their name, right?”

Loki hums in what could be taken for agreement, openly watching Tony now, who meets his gaze evenly. ”And do you wish to prey upon me, Stark? I am a single father, a foreigner, and lacking the resources you possess – an easy target. Would you seek to exploit me, to ask things of me in return for what you could offer my son?”

“No”, is Tony’s simple answer, his sleepy mind seeking to parse through all the implications of Loki’s questioning. He’s not sure where the man is getting these ideas – maybe he thinks Tony really is a raging asshole, or that the genius is motivated by pity, neither of which are true at all. “No”, Tony repeats, frowning sharply. Loki watches him, eyes flicking over his face.

Then the younger man takes a step – two steps forward, a long hand settling on Tony’s forearm that rests atop the counter. “What if I asked you to?” falls from Loki’s lips, so close now that Tony can almost taste it, really would if he leaned just a bit closer. It’s bewildering, but Tony is definitely flexible, and he hasn’t done much of anything hot since the moment Ellie came into his life; there just hadn’t been the time.

So Tony doesn’t let the moment go to waste, his empty hand cupping Loki’s jaw and dragging him down into a kiss that’s almost vicious. It’s like their first meeting all over again, with anger and distrust and a struggle to come out the winner. Tony isn’t afraid to play dirty, though, and while Loki is distracted, he grips Loki’s forearm with his other hand, dragging him close before pinning him to the bar.

“Is this what you want?” the genius questions Loki in return, voice darkened by sudden desire. “Do you want to be preyed upon and picked apart?” One of his hands has found its way into Loki’s hair, gripping the black locks tightly and holding him in place. The other is easily unzipping the front of Loki’s pants, slipping inside to run across the heated flesh of Loki’s arousal.

Loki moans, but doesn’t look away from Tony’s gaze. He finds his voice, more thoroughly wrecked than Tony’s is, and he hisses, “Only for tonight”.

That’s either a promise or a warning, but Tony isn’t too worried about it either way, instead kicking Loki’s legs a bit wider apart and settling in to do as has been asked of him. He understands why Loki needs this after all – parenthood is hard alone, to always be the responsible one, to be in control, to make the rules and enforce them. At least Tony has Pepper when he needs to escape, to let someone else fill that role for a while, but Loki doesn’t have that someone. Loki needs the chance to lose control for a while, and Tony is rather good at that.

It doesn’t take much to get them both exposed, or to find some pleasure in just the rub of their bodies together, but Loki’s practically begging for more, though not with his words. Tony gives it to him, gives in to the demands of Loki’s hips as they buck upwards, meets that seeking mouth with his own, and just gives all that he can to the younger man, who takes it in so greedily.

When it’s over – when they’ve both found the limits of their pleasure and plunged carelessly over them – Loki sits on the floor, panting as he leans heavily back on the bar. Tony is sprawled shamelessly on the floor in front of him, equally breathless, eyes closed and content to stay as he is for the moment. Loki doesn’t appear to agree, saying nothing as he collects his clothes, but moving in a lazy, boneless way that tells Tony he’s done pretty well.

Still, there’s something worth saying, at least Tony thinks so. “You’re a good father, you know”, he calls out to Loki’s retreating back, watching as the man stops in his escape to the guest room. “You love your son, and it’s obvious that he loves you back just as well”. Loki turns back then, just for a second, but Tony thinks that there is something like gratitude in Loki’s face for a moment. At the very least, he’s willing to pretend there was, smiling a little to himself as he finally gets up off the floor too.


End file.
